Completion

Step 8 Completion of the Nosegear

Floxing the nosewheel assembly onto the end of the strut was no major problem. I had to remove and re-install it later, however, as I had installed it parallel to the inside of the strut instead of the outside. This caused a nosewheel retraction problem - in short - the wheel didn't go all the way in.

I used some peel ply to keep the extra flox in, also, used hardware store hardware. I'll put this assembly on permanently later.

If you look closely, you can see the nose wheel pivot assembly is installed parallel to the back, or inward side of the strut. This 'rotates' the wheel and tire about the end of the strut further out than it should be.

The wheel would not retract properly at all. I thought about the whole thing for a while and figured out this was what was wrong. I thought I had made some major geometry error, glad it was only this simple.

I microed some blocks of 2" urethane together in preparation for the nose wheel box mold.

I also decided to make my own strut cover. This is the foam block I used to create the mold. You can see the paper pattern on top of the block.

I cut the foam block for the nosewheel box in half, top to bottom, to make carving and sanding it easier. My band saw made this much easier, I did the general shaping with it.

Once my nose wheel box and strut cover molds were done (I mounted the strut cover on a piece of (countertop) to serve as its base. They line up well and seem to be shaped/fit together properly.

I vacuum bagged my strut cover after installing 3 layers of BID on the mold - after covering it with packing tape, of course.

Here's the final product. I ended up not using this strut cover. Simply stated, it doesn't cover all the space between the NG-30s, and, it's too narrow to work well with the electric noselift assembly I purchased.

If you want to see the one I used click here.

I cut a square out of the fiberglass bottom on the fuselage so I could make nose wheel doors like a few other builders have done. In this picture I've already cut that piece out, and, have taped the paper pattern on over the bare foam to cut the hole through to the inside of the fuselage.

I used my Fein sander, with a small HSS blade attachment mounted to cut the notch in F-22 for the nose strut.

I used a scroll saw to cut the hole in the bottom once I'd finished marking it (and checking it.) The hole isn't symmetrical, due to how the bolt through the nosewheel is installed it's wider on one side than the other. I just have to remember to always install that bolt the same way....

Ahhh! There's a hole in the bottom of the boat....

...so I guess it's not a boat anymore! I retracted the nose wheel, first, to check my work, second, because now I can! Awesome!

As I mentioned above, my nosewheel pivot assembly had been installed at the wrong angle. To remove it, I disassembled the unit down to the aluminum casting that floxes onto the strut, then, using a propane torch to slowly heat it...

...it eventually popped right off! I went really slow, heating the aluminum slowly, then, eventually, it must have gotten warm enough to soften the epoxy holding the flox together and it came off. Took about 15 minutes altogether. I didn't flox it back on right away, I simply bolted it. When the nosewheel doors, strut cover, etc. and outside glassing is done I'll flox it on permanently and install the AN hardware it needs.

This picture shows me test fitting the strut cover. This cover fitted properly, size and dimension wise, but I decided to make a different one. Pictures of that later.

Here's my nosewheel box mold, with a layer of micro on it. Some of the foam joints didn't turn out so well, so, I put micro in them. Well, it ran out 'cause it was too thin and I ended up microing the whole thing. Additionally, I had added some 1/2" thin spacers around the bottom to give a little more room than the plans sizes called for. They tapered as they went up to nothing.

After the micro cured, I sanded it, then, covered the whole thing with packing tape to ready it for the layps.

One fiberglass nosewheel box. These sorts of parts are very fun to build, you start with some dimensions, some foam and some 'glass, you end up with a custom fit 'glass part. Very, very nice.

I kind of got carried away with windows in my nosewheel box. I bought some 1/8" Lexan and then made a pattern on the computer to install it. Here's the pattern mounted on the side of the box marking where I will cut the 'glass for the windows.

After marking and cutting the 'glass for the windows, the mold looked a bit messy. No worries, however, the irregular surfaces are inside the windows and the Lexan won't mind at all.

Here's one of the window sets, after cutting to fit, and double-stick taping to the mold. You can still see the plastic protective coating on the inside of the Lexan.

Here's one of the window sets after cutting out of the Lexan sheet. I left some of the spaces between the windows uncut to keep the alignment between them correct.

After the windows were taped to the glass, and a 2 ply BID pattern around their edges layed over, I peel plied then vacuum bagged the whole assembly. The vacuum bag, aside from making a thin, epoxy-light bubble-free layup, pressed the edges of the Lexan flat onto the box ensuring it all fit together properly.

The only challenge here was removing the mold. Despite all the tricks I tried, I couldn't get it to pop out like many other molds like this I've done. So, it got cut up into pieces.

Here's what's left of my nosewheel box mold. A million chunks of urethane foam in the trash can, picked out with pliers, hacked out with a hacksaw blade, drilled out, etc. you get the idea.

But all that work was worth it. The box windows turned out perfect. Sure, I put too many in, and they'll probably get scratched up and I'll wish I just put a small one in. But isn't it cool! You ought to be able to check the state of the nosewheel tire after it's retracted with this many windows!

Installing the box into the fuselage was easier with this technique in mind. I used some scrap pieces of 1/4" PVC foam on both sides and in back of the tire, with the wheel retracted all the way, to make sure the box was in the right place.

Of course, I have taped up all those windows to keep from scratching them...

Here's a shot of the box from the inside. Once it was properly located per the step above, I simply added the 'glass tapes the plans called for.

After the tapes were added, I trimmed the inside to a flush fit around the inside of the box. I have removed the tape here to get a feel for how this will look, just for fun.

I can probably read the runway numbers with the wheel extended with this many windows!

My wedge of foam ended up in EXACTLY the right place for where my marker beacon antenna coax came into the fuselage. Lucky!

As I had indicated earlier, I had some trouble with micro getting on the bare glass as the nose sides were installed. I removed as much as I could, but, couldn't get it all. To prevent any structural problems later, I sanded those spots out from inside, once the layups were cured, then added repair layup 'glass back over the fixes.

I did the same on the back side of F-0 where the same thing had occurred.

That completes completion of the nosegear.

The next step is Piping the Pitot & Static System.